Saturday, August 01, 2009

Alinghi 5 boat parade rallies thousands of Swiss fans

One could have easily thought the crowds of Swiss fans in Lausanne were cheering for their national football team or some famous local rock star. Instead, the 10,000 onlookers were there to see the start of Alinghi's boat parade to Geneva and support the Defender of the America's Cup on the national day the small landlocked European country.

From early in the morning fans of all ages, gathered in Lausanne's port, waiting for the show to begin and wearing their team and national colors. With the exception of probably New Zealand it is very uncommon to see crowds of all walks of life associate their national pride with an America's Cup sailing team, and this national aspect was clearly emphasized. This is the first time a purely Swiss yacht will race in the America's Cup, built, launched and sailed on lake Léman. In fact, Ernesto Bertarelli, Alinghi owner, was sure BMW Oracle had put their head in the lion's mouth when they presented their multihull challenge 2 years ago since there is a long and successful tradition of multihull racing on lake Léman.

During the team presentation and the subsequent talk by Bertarelli, probably two issues are worth mentioning. First, the insistence of the speaker in asking each and every team member, including Bertarelli, whether they were packing up to go to Dubai for the match. Obviously, the reply was always the same. The venue will be announced before the 8th of August. Secondly, Bertarelli jokingly said that Alinghi 5 would do the parade with just the "small" mast and will have the "big" one in Genoa.

Once the show was over, the sailing team boarded the yacht in order to embark on the boat parade to Geneva with a few stops along the way. Nevertheless, the incredible amount of spectator yachts, at times close to 500, that followed the massive catamaran made it impossible to hoist the gennaker and sail. Alinghi 5 was towed for most of the journey and only when at the approach to Geneva did she actually sail for a few hundred meters.

Once in her home club, Alinghi 5 received her official flag certificate from the Swiss foreign minster. As of today she is a duly-registered Swiss leisure yacht and there is no doubt his document will be used as evidence in the next court hearing in New York.

Alinghi might have kiwi brainpower on their yacht but this is Switzerland. A little bit of alphorn to cheer the spirits is always necessary. Lausanne, 1 August 2009. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Hundreds of spectator boats, of all types, were out on the water to say goodbye to Alinghi 5. Lausanne, 1 August 2009. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

4 Comments:

Great coverage by VS & a awesome day for Alinghi to introduce their boat during the Swiss National Day.Super job by the Alinghi PR team.

If GGYC goes to court on the CIC, the duly-registered Swiss leisure yacht document means nothing. What will matter is where the custom parts for A5 were purchased Example, it's common knowledge the North Sails were molded in Minden, Nevada. Minden has the only mold able to make 3Di & 3DL for A5. Without the mold that is in the USA the sails can not be made.

The DoG CIC requirements are quite different from the Mutual Consent CIC requirements. Going to be interesting.

9:54 PM You have to be more specific as to what part of the 3DL & stress load sails you are talking about. Different patents are held by multiple entities with some not even being associated with North (Dubois & Baudet)